Emil Toman

Biography

April 1st, 1923 – August 28th, 2007

1923
born in Vienna / A 
Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, class of R. C. Andersen
since 1950
working as a painter
1953 – 1954
Study trips to Egypt and Sudan
1960 – 1983
teacher at the Vienna Federal Training and Research Institute of Graphic Arts
2007 
died in Brunn/Gebirge, Lower Austria
 
Emil Toman lived and worked in Brunn/Gebirge / A

Member
Vienna Secession (Wiener Secession)

Works held by various private and public collections  (Selection)
City of Vienna / Austria
Collection of the State-Museum of Lower Austria

Collection of the City of Brunn/Gebirge, Lower Austria
Albertina, Vienna
Austrian Federal Ministery of Education and Cultural Affairs / A
Culture Department of the City of Vienna

Culture Departmen of the City of Villach, Carinthia / A

Modern Art Museum, Chile / CL
 

several private collections
Exhibitions
Solo and group exhibitions from his estate
2025
TextImages, zs art galerie, Vienna / A
2024
Dialogues I – 15 years zs art; group-exhibition, zs art galerie, Vienna / A
Aktzente; group-exhibition, zs art galerie, Vienna / A
2020
Figural; group-exhibition, zs art galerie, Vienna
2020
zselection; group-exhibition, zs art galerie, Vienna
2019
PictoGraphs, group-exhibition, zs art galerie, Vienna
2019
Körper – Raum – Zeit, solo-exhibition, Galerie Reinhold Maas, Reutlingen / D
2019
The Landscape Principle, group-exhibition,zs art galerie, Vienna
2019
Head-Variations, group-exhibition, zs art galerie, Vienna
2016
works on paper, group-exhibition, zs art galerie, Vienna
2014
5 years zs art gallery, group-exhibition, zs art galerie, Vienna
2013
Emil Toman, 1923-2007, Solo-Exhibition, Brunn/Gebirge, Lower Austria
2013
Drawing Vienna 4th, group-exhibition, zs art galerie, Vienna 
2013
Emil Toman - Maler, Mentor, Wegbereiter, group-exhibition, zs art galerie, Vienna
2012
artfair Art Austria 2012, zs art galerie, Leopold Museum, Vienna
2011
ZeitReise, Solo-Exhibition, zs art galerie, Vienna, (C)
2011
artfair Art Austria 2011, zs art galerie, Leopold Museum, Vienna

Solo and group exhibitions  (Selection)
1998
NÖ-Dokumentationszentrum, St. Pölten / A
1993
Kuratorium Palais Lichtenstein, Feldkirch / A
1986
Blau-Gelbe-Galerie, Vienna
1978
Galerie G. Armstorfer, Salzburg
1977
Gliedererhaus, Brunn am Gebirge / A
1973
Vienna Secession, Vienna (C)
1972
Bad Schönau, lower Austria
1970
Erste österr. Sparkasse, Schwechat / A
1970
M. E. Toman: ZEICHEN SIGNALE; Galerie in der Passage, Vienna (solo)
1970
Forum West, Salzburg
1969
Galerie an der Stadtmauer, Villach / A
1968
Vienna Secession, Vienna
1965
Galerie im Griechenbeisl, Vienna
1962
Gewerkschaftshaus Mödling  / A
1961
Wiener Neustadt, lower Austria
1958
Vienna Secession, Vienna
1957
Zagreb, Kroatien und Belgrad, Serbia
1956
Darmstadt / D
1954
Vienna Secession, Vienna
1953
Academy of Fine Arts, Kairo, Egypt 
1952
Vienna Secession, Vienna
1951
Vienna Secession, Vienna
1950
Vienna Secession, Vienna
1949
Modern Art Museum, group-exhibition, Chile / CL
Bibliography
Peter Baum: Abstraktion in dunkel leuchtenden Farben – Positiv zu wertende Kollektive Emil Tomans im Griechenbeisl, OÖ Nachrichten, 16.4.1965
Ausstellungsflyer: Besinnungszeichen Signale, Galerie an der Stadtmauer 1970.
Nach dem Schüler der Lehrer – Zur Ausstellung M. E. Toman in der Villacher Galerie an der Stadtmauer, Kärntner Landeszeitung, 26.3.1970
Greta Misar: Meditationen voll Mystik, Kleine Zeitung Klagenfurt 67/Nr. 70 S1.50, 26.3.1970
Besinnungszeichen – Signale, M.E. Toman in der „Galerie an der Stadtmauer, Volkszeitung Kärnten, 26.3.1970
Horst Ogris: Signale menschlicher Einsamkeit, Kunst im Hinterhof – Galerie an der Stadtmauer zeigt Graphik von M. E. Toman, 26.3.1970
Ausstellungsflyer: Zeichensignale, Erste österreichische Spar-Casse Galerie in der Passage, Wien I, Hoher Markt 4  1970.
Heinrich Fuchs: Österr. Kunst- und Architekturgeschichte – Die österreichischen Maler des 20. Jahrhunderts. Eigenverlag, Bd. 4, 1985, S. 177
Joachim Rössl: Des Lebens Schatten Bilder. Farbe-Rhythmus-Licht.
in Ausstellungskatalog TOMAN ENTSTEHUNG VORLÄUFIGKEIT BEWEGUNG, NÖ Landesmuseum Blau-Gelbe Galerie der NÖ Kulturabteilung Wien I, 1986,
Gabriele Kala: Vibration der Seele, Zur Ausstellung eines „Großen Unbekannten“, DIE FURCHE, 12.9.1986
Gabriele Kala: Vibration der Seele, Zur Ausstellung eines „Großen Unbekannten“, Die Kronen Zeitung,12.9.1986
Kristian Sotriffer: Verwandlung des Informel – Jascha, Toman und Rainer in Wiener Galerien, Die Presse,10.9.1986
Wiener Zeitung: Zum Informel hin und zurück, 6.9.1986
Ausstellungsflyer: Kuratorium Liechtenstein Feldkirch, Austria Abstrakt 1955-1980, Gruppenausstellung: Hans Bischoffshausen, Adolf Frohner, Johann Fruhmann, Franz Herberth, Andrew Molles, Fred Nowak, Drago J. Prelog, Arnulf Rainer, Alois Riedl, Hans, Staudacher, Emil Toman; 1993
Harald Krämer: GALERIE IM GRIECHENBEISL 1960 – 1971, Verlag Christian Brandstätter, 1995, S. 132/136
Presseaussendung der NÖ Landesregierung: NÖ Dokumenationszentrum feiert 20jähriges Bestehen, 20.2.1998
Guido Zehetbauer-Salzer: Emil Toman, Publikation zs art galerie, Wien, 2011
„Figural“: Emil Toman, Robert Staudinger, Wilhelm Drach; kulturkanister.at, November 2011
Barbara Schlemmer & Guido Zehetbauer-Salzer: Emil Toman – 1923 bis 2007 – ein leider in Vergessenheit geratener Vertreter des österreichischen Informel wäre am 1. April 2013 90 Jahre alt geworden, Brunner Geschichten, Ausgabe 13/2013, S. 28 bis 33
www.kunstinvestor.at: ZS art Galerie: „Emil Toman – Maler, Mentor, Wegbereiter“, Online-Redaktion Michael R. Minassian, 15.1.2013
www.freundederkuenste.de: Ausstellungsempfehlung: Ausstellung in Wien: „Emil Toman – Maler, Mentor, Wegbereiter“ bis zum 21.3.2013 in der ZS art Galerie; 30.1.2013
www.wien-kunst.at/highlights: Empfehlungen im Februar: ZS Art Gallery – Emil Toman – Maler, Mentor, Wegbereiter; Empfehlungen der Redaktion, 02/2013
Karla Starecek: Freudenfeier, 5 Jahre zs art galerie, PARNASS Nr. 02/2014, S 22
Reutlinger General-Anzeiger: Chronik des Lebendigseins, Emil Toman in der Galerie Reinhold Maas, Reutlingen; 23.5.2019
Silvie Aigner: DIALOGE I UND II, ZS ART GALERIE FEIERT JUBILÄUM, PARNASS, S 66, 2024


 

What made the person, painter and teacher Emil Toman stand out was an uncompromising love of freedom.

Initially chief graphic artist in the national bank, at the Vienna Federal Training and Research Institute of Graphic Arts Master of Arts Emil Toman was given the task which inspired and fulfilled him alongside his passion as a painter. He saw the work with visionary, fresh young people as a mutually stimulating exchange of ideas. The teacher Emil Toman understood how to encourage freedom and individuality in an exemplary manner in the forms of expression of the many different students. For him this was an unconditional requirement for uninhibited artistic development. The passionately progressive dedication of his young colleagues reflects his longing in his own painting.

 
In the young Emil Toman a one-year study trip to Cairo and Sudan revealed his love of the desert. He earned his living by selling works there, which is why from this period there are unfortunately only a few of the pictures which very much characterize his later work.


 
Emil Toman´s works have been presented and honored in many exhibitions. These include in the Modern Art Museum in Chile, in Cairo, Zagreb, the Vienna Secession and Salzburg. The latest major exhibition was dedicated to his 75th birthday in St. Pölten.


 
In his pictures Emil Toman channelled the happiness he experienced during his extended journeys and walks in nature. Here he recorded powerful emotions rather than depicting what he saw, however. The biggest wish of the nature lover was a philosophical mergence with the endless expanse of the universe, as some of his pictures indicate in the title. To paint the waves of his sensations as authentically as possible the obsessed artist experimented tirelessly with new stylistic methods of expression and ultimately discovered Art Informelle for himself.


 
The abstract painting of Art Informell does not indicate a standardized style, and is also no longer based on shapes such as circle, square, rectangle, instead it rather represents an artist attitude. Unlike geometric abstraction Art Informell is not based on an excessive theoretical superstructure. This openness inspires new possibilities. Art Informell works are hard to subject to art criticism because the pictures do not reveal any describable elements. The picture area becomes a field of action, spontaneity is more important than the composition of the picture.